I decided to stay one more night in Legian enjoying the pool, beach and sunshine. I saw yet another breathtaking sunset from the aptly named Sunset Bar with Van and Gundula. Gundula, Ellen (a 20 year old from England) and I hired a minivan to drive us to Ubud in Central Bali. We found a guestroom on the top of a shop complete with a front porch overlooking the street and a small family temple where they make their daily offerings….very cool for less than $6 a day!
We had a wake up call a lot earlier than I would have preferred by two monkeys who paid us a visit to eat Gundula’s pistachios that were accidentally left on the front porch overnight! The monkeys proceeded to eat every pistachio in the bag and then totally destroyed an aloe plant and some other tropical plant. We tried to intervene, but they just hissed and scared us to death, so we let them wreak havoc on the front porch for the morning. What a great way to start the day!
We spent the rest of the day shopping in the local market. Ubud is the arts center of Bali, so there are a lot of unique things to tempt you! Gundula and I went to the Kecak Ramayana & Fire Dance show Friday evening. It was definitely a show geared toward the tourists, but it was impressive. The first half (the Kecak part) was based on an ancient love story. Over 40 men sang chants for at least 45 minutes while the colorfully decorated actors recreated the story. After that, the fire dancing began. With the guys still chanting, a bon fire was started out of coconut shells. As they turned to a hot ember, a guy dressed like a bird started walking and kicking around the shells. It was nuts!! He apparently goes into a trance-like state and at one point two other guys had to pull him off the hot shells and lay him down on the ground. I’ve never seen anything like it!
Saturday, Gundula and I rented motor bikes and rode up to Mt. Batur, Lake Batur and Mt. Agung. Riding motor bikes in Indonesia is awesome! They basically don’t have any rules. I signed my name on a slip of paper and we were off…no drivers license, no training and a very sketchy ‘insurance policy’. I think I worried the guy we rented the bikes from when I asked what side of the street they drive on in Bali. The worry returned my way when he didn’t really answer me (turns out it is on the left side most of the time)! Luckily, we both survived and it turned out to be an amazing trip! We had lunch in rice terraces we passed along the way. In contrast to the cold, misty and brown terraces in China, those in Bali are a vibrant green. Gazing at the green terraces against the bright blue sky is an image I won’t soon forget.
It was a lot of fun to talk to the locals on the way up…filling up with petrol, if you can call it that, was also an interesting experience. They keep petrol in old vodka bottles or old plastic water bottles on the side of the road and use a funnel to fill up the tank. Definitely not like at home! Mt. Batur and Mt. Agung, both active volcanoes, were fantastic. The area, unlike Ubud and the southern part of the island, is not touristy yet. Since not a lot of people venture up to the lake and mountains without being on a guided tour, we got a lot of surprised looks. On the way back to Ubud, it started pouring down rain. We waited for the storm to pass under trees while all of the locals laughed at us. I was soaked to the core. Luckily, it passed quickly and we dried up almost instantly.
Gundula and I took a Balinese cooking course on Monday morning. It started with a tour of the market where, like most markets in Asia, chaos, stench and unsanitary practices are the norm. It was great to be with the locals seeing the world from their perspective and experiencing what they do. However, as I feel after walking out of every market I’ve entered since leaving the West, I am very thankful for Publix and Harris Teeter.
Back at Café Bali, we made bakso soup, satay (chicken paste with spices on a stick), pepes (fish marinated in Balinese sauce and steamed in banana leaves), ureb (vegetables with coconut and saffron sauce), saffron rice and dadar galang (a dessert pancake filled with caramelized coconut). Everything we made tasted amazing – so fresh, healthy and colorful! I really hope I can recreate it when I have a kitchen again!
I spent Monday afternoon exploring the Monkey Forest. Just as the name implies, there were monkeys everywhere. They swatted my bag, tried to steal the sandals that were strapped to my feet and generally scared me to death, primarily because there is a rabies epidemic on the island at the moment. At any rate, I am still amazed at how human-like primates behave. Their expressions are just like ours! If only we picked fleas & ticks off of each other and ate them every once and a while, we’d be identical!
Yesterday, I ventured off on my own on a motorbike. I went in 3 directions off the map that I was carrying…in other words, I covered a lot of territory. The absolute highlight was the hour long trek into the jungle to see the Jungle Temple (they really are very creative at naming things in Bali). An old Balinese man escorted me through the jungle. I was very muddy by the time we finished and my hiking shoes ripped…it was intense hiking, more like pulling myself up and over slippery rocks and through thick vines...no real trail to speak of. The views were amazing, but the real highlight was sitting alone with the Balinese guy and meditating (I felt obliged to do it even though I was too busy swatting mosquitoes and wiping sweat off my forehead to actually get into the meditation thing!). It was a great day of exploring the 5 villages around Ubud on my own!
Today, Gundala and I plan to venture to the north part of Bali. Not sure exactly where we will end up, but likely near Kalibukbuk – famous for black sand beaches, temples, dolphins and hot springs. On Saturday, I’ll head to Sanur, a coastal city in southeast Bali, to meet up with Michael, my friend from Beijing. His family and I will be staying at the Hyatt Sanur until Tuesday. It will be great to see a familiar face from China and to see how much Chinese I can still remember! Also, it will be nice to have air conditioning. Selamat tinggal from Ubud!
We had a wake up call a lot earlier than I would have preferred by two monkeys who paid us a visit to eat Gundula’s pistachios that were accidentally left on the front porch overnight! The monkeys proceeded to eat every pistachio in the bag and then totally destroyed an aloe plant and some other tropical plant. We tried to intervene, but they just hissed and scared us to death, so we let them wreak havoc on the front porch for the morning. What a great way to start the day!
We spent the rest of the day shopping in the local market. Ubud is the arts center of Bali, so there are a lot of unique things to tempt you! Gundula and I went to the Kecak Ramayana & Fire Dance show Friday evening. It was definitely a show geared toward the tourists, but it was impressive. The first half (the Kecak part) was based on an ancient love story. Over 40 men sang chants for at least 45 minutes while the colorfully decorated actors recreated the story. After that, the fire dancing began. With the guys still chanting, a bon fire was started out of coconut shells. As they turned to a hot ember, a guy dressed like a bird started walking and kicking around the shells. It was nuts!! He apparently goes into a trance-like state and at one point two other guys had to pull him off the hot shells and lay him down on the ground. I’ve never seen anything like it!
Saturday, Gundula and I rented motor bikes and rode up to Mt. Batur, Lake Batur and Mt. Agung. Riding motor bikes in Indonesia is awesome! They basically don’t have any rules. I signed my name on a slip of paper and we were off…no drivers license, no training and a very sketchy ‘insurance policy’. I think I worried the guy we rented the bikes from when I asked what side of the street they drive on in Bali. The worry returned my way when he didn’t really answer me (turns out it is on the left side most of the time)! Luckily, we both survived and it turned out to be an amazing trip! We had lunch in rice terraces we passed along the way. In contrast to the cold, misty and brown terraces in China, those in Bali are a vibrant green. Gazing at the green terraces against the bright blue sky is an image I won’t soon forget.
It was a lot of fun to talk to the locals on the way up…filling up with petrol, if you can call it that, was also an interesting experience. They keep petrol in old vodka bottles or old plastic water bottles on the side of the road and use a funnel to fill up the tank. Definitely not like at home! Mt. Batur and Mt. Agung, both active volcanoes, were fantastic. The area, unlike Ubud and the southern part of the island, is not touristy yet. Since not a lot of people venture up to the lake and mountains without being on a guided tour, we got a lot of surprised looks. On the way back to Ubud, it started pouring down rain. We waited for the storm to pass under trees while all of the locals laughed at us. I was soaked to the core. Luckily, it passed quickly and we dried up almost instantly.
Gundula and I took a Balinese cooking course on Monday morning. It started with a tour of the market where, like most markets in Asia, chaos, stench and unsanitary practices are the norm. It was great to be with the locals seeing the world from their perspective and experiencing what they do. However, as I feel after walking out of every market I’ve entered since leaving the West, I am very thankful for Publix and Harris Teeter.
Back at Café Bali, we made bakso soup, satay (chicken paste with spices on a stick), pepes (fish marinated in Balinese sauce and steamed in banana leaves), ureb (vegetables with coconut and saffron sauce), saffron rice and dadar galang (a dessert pancake filled with caramelized coconut). Everything we made tasted amazing – so fresh, healthy and colorful! I really hope I can recreate it when I have a kitchen again!
I spent Monday afternoon exploring the Monkey Forest. Just as the name implies, there were monkeys everywhere. They swatted my bag, tried to steal the sandals that were strapped to my feet and generally scared me to death, primarily because there is a rabies epidemic on the island at the moment. At any rate, I am still amazed at how human-like primates behave. Their expressions are just like ours! If only we picked fleas & ticks off of each other and ate them every once and a while, we’d be identical!
Yesterday, I ventured off on my own on a motorbike. I went in 3 directions off the map that I was carrying…in other words, I covered a lot of territory. The absolute highlight was the hour long trek into the jungle to see the Jungle Temple (they really are very creative at naming things in Bali). An old Balinese man escorted me through the jungle. I was very muddy by the time we finished and my hiking shoes ripped…it was intense hiking, more like pulling myself up and over slippery rocks and through thick vines...no real trail to speak of. The views were amazing, but the real highlight was sitting alone with the Balinese guy and meditating (I felt obliged to do it even though I was too busy swatting mosquitoes and wiping sweat off my forehead to actually get into the meditation thing!). It was a great day of exploring the 5 villages around Ubud on my own!
Today, Gundala and I plan to venture to the north part of Bali. Not sure exactly where we will end up, but likely near Kalibukbuk – famous for black sand beaches, temples, dolphins and hot springs. On Saturday, I’ll head to Sanur, a coastal city in southeast Bali, to meet up with Michael, my friend from Beijing. His family and I will be staying at the Hyatt Sanur until Tuesday. It will be great to see a familiar face from China and to see how much Chinese I can still remember! Also, it will be nice to have air conditioning. Selamat tinggal from Ubud!
Our trip sounds amazing. I want to come over to Bali right now and hike through rain forests and chase monkeys off my porch. I might stop reading your blog because it is depressing to read how about much cool stuff you are experiencing and then realize I am here in stupid Miami. I need to get done with school and come over there!!!!!!!!!!! I email you about that internship. I got it. Check you hotmail. I love you and think about you al the time!!!!!
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